PAINT IT NOW

March 19 - April 23, 2010
Opening Reception:  Friday, March 19, 7-10pm

The Distillery Gallery and OverKill Studio announce the second edition of "Paint it Now," an exhibit which brings together practicing artists of varied backgrounds to examine the complexity of the nature of painting today.

The critically-acclaimed first edition of "Paint it Now" in August of 2008 included "a giant black-and-white mural by all the artists, bubbling with pop characters such as Alfred E. Neuman and rolling with dark undertones," (Cate McQuaide, Boston Globe).  The 2010 version will expand upon the two-wall mural concept, bringing the collaborative painting installation through the entire gallery space.  The "black paint on white walls" parameters of the first exhibit remain intact, helping to blur lines between individual contributions, resulting in a more cohesive and unified final piece.

OverKill's Thomas Buildmore and Morgan Thomas have again teamed-up with Distillery Gallery Director, Scott Chasse, to curate the exhibit, as well as contribute to it, though much of the work will transpire via interaction between artists as imagery organically unfolds throughout the two-week installation period. "Paint it Now" examines what it means to emerging painters to create in the contemporary arena. As Buildmore stated in a 2008 interview with The Boston Phoenix, “It’s a collision of all of the different influences we draw from. It’s like bringing all of art history right to the surface.”

The exhibit boasts a roster of over twenty artists from Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia:
Royce Bannon, Buildmore, EL Celso, Scott Chasse, DarkClouds, Robert daVies, Delve, Josh Falk, Jessica Hess, Mitchell Kehe, Keely, Enamel Kingdom, Rob Larsen, Kenji Nakayama, Nineta,  Damion Silver, John Skibo, Skript, Morgan Thomas, Dana Woulfe, and Nick Z

TRANSPOSITIONS

January 21 - March 4, 2010
Opening Reception:  January 21, 6-9pm
 

The exhibit “Transpositions” features projects created in response to the unique sonic and visual characteristics of the Distillery Building and its environs.  Inspired by the site and context of the location - a mid-19th century former rum distillery currently housing artists, craftspeople, and small businesses - live amplification of real-time events will be combined with recorded works within the spacious room of the Distillery Gallery, exploring themes of transmission and transformation, time and memory, and location and dislocation.

Artists Derek Hoffend, Asher Thal-Nir, and Jed Speare will be showing works employing sound, video, and objects.  A collaborative site-specific project will be exhibited alongside pieces initiated by each artist which will complement each other and, to varying degrees, blend together in-situ to form a larger unified atmosphere.

DAN MCCOLE, SOLO EXHIBIT

November 19 - December 30, 2009
Opening Reception: November 19, 6-9pm
 

The Distillery Gallery is excited to aLearn more about manual excerpts.nnounce its first solo exhibit featuring South Boston watercolorist, Dan McCole.

Born in Southie, McCole has produced paintings which capture the true likeness of the neighborhood. Area landmarks like "The Amrhein's Compound" and "Dorchester Heights" are depicted with a balance of history and the present day. Locals will find a quick connection to his work which may capture a moment of the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, a snapshot from a Red Sox game, or a crowd outside a neighborhood haunt.

McCole's work does travel beyond Boston, however. Key West, Ireland, Israel, France, and Sicily are among other places that have inspired the artist to create watercolor portrayals of their landscapes, seascapes, and people.

Dan McCole is a graduate of the Vesper George School of Art. Along with being a career artist, he has a substantial background in the newspaper profession and is a recent retiree of The Boston Herald. Additionally, Dan is co-founder and president of the South Boston Arts Association, is an associate member of the New England Watercolor Society, and enjoys full membership in the South Shore Art Association, The Quincy Art Association, and the North River Art Association.

Originals and reproduction prints of McCole's work will be on display. With the Holiday Season upon us, this is a great exhibit to visit when in search of a unique gift!

Please join us on November 19 from 6-9 pm for the opening reception which will feature live music and refreshments.

PEOPLE, PLACES, & HORSES

“People, Places & Horses”
featuring works by Aimee Belanger, Monica Nydam, Nick Ward, and David Wooddell
October 1 – October 22, 2009
Opening Reception: October 1, 6-9pm
free and open to the public

The Distillery Gallery presents “People, Places & Horses,” a straight-forward exhibit of four Boston-based painters individually consistent in their chosen subject matter.

People:
Nick Ward’s close-up portraits reveal exaggerated elements of facial characteristics mixed with sparse use of text or vivid color as a backdrop. Each work is an uncontrived study of texture and form punctuated by the suggestion of everyday routine.

David Wooddell exhibits a clear appreciation of his predecessors and a mature, diligent work ethic by painting live models in a modernist manner. The focus of his rich, heavy-bodied figure studies balances between the subject and the individual brush stroke, resulting in luminous portrayals of the human form.

Places:
Aimee Belanger blurs the lines between imagination and reality with landscapes based on photographs, memories, and dreams. Her juxtaposition of stark architectural elements with colorful organic settings results in imagery of places that may or may not exist.

and Horses:
Monica Nydam’s “Horse Series” entertains the viewer with painterly renditions of snapshots involving the subject. While some pieces use thick linear brush strokes to create “pixelated” visions of the mare or stallion, others involve hints of distortion or motion. Each work shares a candid, stolen-moment quality with the next.

Please join us on October 1 from 6-9 pm for the opening reception.

ARTAGEDDEON

featuring works by: Daniel Benayun, Thomas Buildmore, Laurie Carman, Scott Chasse, Corey Corcoran, Michael Dacey, Robert daVies, Thomas Dupere, Josh Falk, Jarrett Golz, Vanessa Irzyk, Ryan Lombardi, Fish McGill, Kristen Mills, Kenji Nakayama, Tom Noffsinger, Sheryl Pace, Morgan Thomas, Judith Uehling, Dana Woulfe, Nick Z, and more TBA....

September 3 - September 24, 2009

Opening Reception: September 3, 6-9pm

free and open to the public

artageddon

As the tumultuous world of commercial galleries continues to scramble for readjustment to today's
sales-savy artists, alternative methods of display are at the forefront of a battle, a battle which The
Distillery Gallery* has deemed: "Artageddon."

This exhibit gathers twenty artists from Boston and beyond who are moving forward in their careers
regardless of a lack of gallery representation. Embracing alternative venues, social networks,
street campaigns, and other creative outlets for their work, these artists are helping to shape the
future of art commerce. Rather than rely on commissioned gallerists to vend their works, artists of
today have the ability to independently exhibit and sell to a degree unparalleled in the past.

"Artegeddon," as an exhibit, highlights merely a fraction of the enormous pool of talented artists
whom are diligently pressing forward amidst this transitional point in time. "Artageddon" as a
concept will prompt fallout and unknown consequence which the exhibitors will continue to navigate and
embrace.

Please join us on September 3 from 6-9 pm for the opening reception.

GREW UP A SCREW UP

Curated by Thomas Buildmore

featuring works by: Greg Fournier, Morgan Harary, Mitchell Kehe, Isai Mencia, and Julian Wadsworth

July 10 - August 16, 2009

Opening Reception: July 10, 7-10pm

free and open to the public

The Distillery Gallery, in conjunction with Overkill Studio, presents "Grew Up a Screw Up," a lo-fi/hi-tech collision resulting in video, mixed media, appropriations, visual remixes, internet art, installation and more.

Curated by Overkill Studio's Thomas Buildmore (responsible for bringing the ever-successful "Paint it Now" exhibit back in August '08), the show will take advantage of the unconventional gallery space and celebrate non-dependence on the dwindling commercial gallery world. Themes of hyper stimulation, obsession, elitism, simulated depravity and hypocrisy are examined through the works of this group of mulit-faceted artists while the role of the critic is called into question. "This is going to be a show of work that I really like," says Buildmore, who is a visual artist himself with frequent exhibits in Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia.

Please join us on July 10 from 7-10pm for site/time-specific elements of this month-long show.

ART STRIPE

Spring Open Studios group exhibit featuring a continuous "stripe" of artwork throughout the gallery.

HERE, THERE, & EVERYWHERE

Here, There and Everywhere: Anticipating the Art of the Future

An exhibit in conjunction with TransCultural Exchange's
2009 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts
and Boston Cyberarts Festival 2009

April 3 - May 15, 2009

Artist's Reception: May 1st, 6-8pm

Free and Open to the Public

www.transculturalexchange.org

www.bostoncyberarts.org

Here, There and Everywhere: Anticipating the Art of the Future celebrates today’s new world order, where borders are porous, communication instantaneous, and spectacular achievements, more often than not, a joint effort.

For Here, There and Everywhere, TransCultural Exchange asked artists to collaborate with people from different cultures and disciplines. Artists were asked to step outside their historically solitary studio practice and explore new ways of making art – to celebrate cross-fertilization, multi-disciplinary practices and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, and in the process to embrace the art of the future.

In some cases the artists collaborated on the same pieces, either trading them back and forth or passing them from one to another in a modern day version of the Surrealists’ game “The Exquisite Corpse,” updated with the use of the internet. Not surprisingly new technology appeared in a number of works, including one in which the commonplace question asked of strangers about the weather became the basis of a global blog and another in which eBay became the artists’ exhibition venue. Artists also joined scientists in experiments that included communicating with bacteria. Isolated cultures were visited and engaged. Musicians composed with visual artists. Chefs worked with sculptors; and others reached out to community members to create wondrous artistic hybrids. All of these pieces remind us that working together is often more enlightening than working alone, that we have much to learn from one another and that much can be gained by doing so.

The result is over sixty exhibitions, talks and performances in more than as many places, engaging everyone from artists, writers, musicians, chefs, scientists and engineers to a community of rural nomads. More than 200 people from over 60 countries around the world participated.

The Distillery Gallery is pleased to exhibit the following collaborative efforts:

URBAN THEMES, WESTERN/EASTERN CITIES

Walter Crump • Gulay Alpay

ONE WORLD—MANY PAPERS

Jane Ingram Allen in collaboration with dozens of
artists around the world

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY/PSYCHOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE

Anne LaPrade Seuthe • Michael Goering •
Christoph Rodde • Klaus Postler

ARTY AS ALL GIT [SIC] OUT: A HAND COBBLED
MUSIC MAKING MACHINE

Rudi Punzo • Peter Lindenmuth

TO ILLUSTRATE THE SPACE BETWEEN OUR WORK,
USING PRINTMAKING AS THE MODEL & THE
MEDIUM

Lara Loutrel • Florian Foerster
NATURALIZED!

Peter Lipsitt • Chien Yin-ru • James Vitale

Please visit the artist's reception which will include a live performance of "A Hand Cobbled Music Making Machine" on Friday, May 1st, from 6-8pm.

ASSESMENT ALASKA

February 19 - March 26, 2009

The Distillery Gallery presents work from and about the emerging artist-run residency in Alaska: the homestead AK. Six artists journeyed to Alaska during the summer of 2008 to see what it is like to live and work with nearly 24 hours of daylight. Elizabeth Amento, Michele Brodie, Darren Lee Miller, Richard Spartos and Thomas Stevenson all traveled to Alaska at the request of Chuck Chaney to assess the experience and produce work.

The six-week exhibit will contain works from this diverse group of artists ranging from photography and video to sculpture and performance. Additionally, documentation about the development of the residency will be on display.

For a preview about the homestead AK residency, visit www.thehomesteadAK.org

OFF THE WALL

January 10 - February 12, 2009

Opening Reception: Sat. Jan. 10, Noon - 5pm

516 E 2nd St., first floor

The Distillery Gallery will host a printmaking show featuring a dozen printmakers as a continuation of its series of exhibits highlighting Boston area artists. "Off the Wall" will open on Saturday, January 10 from Noon - 5pm. The opening reception will be a salon-style event; all prints can be purchased and taken off the wall that day and will be replaced by more works from the same participating artists. Screen printing, letterpress, stenciling, etching, and woodcuts are among the printmaking disciplines represented in the month-long exhibit. Framed and unframed prints on paper will be available along side hand printed tshirts and other wares.

ISOLATED INCIDENTS

Nov. 13th - Dec. 23rd, 2008
Opening Reception: Nov 13th, 6-9pm
 

Isolated Incidents

The Distillery Gallery continues its focus on talented Boston area artists with "Isolated Incidents," a multi-media exhibit featuring sculpture, drawing, painting, and collage by Michael Mullaney, Nicole Seisler, and Dennis Svoronos. This show will present three distinctly different bodies of work, connected merely by immersion in the artistic process and the integration into the unique exhibit space the Distillery Gallery has to offer. Each artist will adapt to the unconventional gallery, and to each other's work, to bring together their respective isolated incidents of art making.

Michael Mullaney creates paintings from recycled drawings, scribbled notes, and washes of color, which form personal universes for exploration. Nicole Seisler transforms cast remnants of her own body into reptilian creatures that quietly invade their surroundings. Dennis Svoronos builds bright sculptures that dissect Americans’ interpretations of the holiday season. The three will occupy the gallery with their creations for six weeks, allowing the artwork to adjust to and elaborate on the already unique display space.

ALL HALLOW EVEN

Friday, Oct. 31st - Sunday, Nov. 2nd
The Distillery Gallery presents: All Hallow Even

Opening Reception Friday Oct. 31st, 9pm - Midnight
Free and Open to the Public, Costumes Recommended!

All Hallow Even:

A group exhibit featuring Distillery artists as they investigate traditional and non-traditional notions of Halloween and the imagery associated with the eve of "All Saints' Day."

The exhibit will coincide with South Boston Open Studios and will be on display for the event weekend, November 1st and 2nd. In addition, a costume party opening reception will be held on Halloween night, Friday, October 31st, from 9pm - midnight. The gallery will be appropriately haunted for the occasion and music will be provided by the notorious DJ Ning Nong. Make-up artists will be available to decorate any non-costumed faces that manifest throughout the evening.

Along with the Halloween-themed works will be an encore presentation of the giant multi-artist wall mural which was produced for the previous exhibit, "Paint it Now." Contributors to the wall will return before the show opens to add to, subtract from, and modify aspects of the enormous black-on-white piece. A darker, devilish, and more evil collaboration will result.

PAINT IT NOW

August 21 - October 2, 2008
The Distillery Gallery and OverKill Studio present:

"Paint It Now"

featuring individual work and large installation by Distillery artists Buildmore, Morgan Thomas, Kenji Nakayama, Ryan Lombardi, and Scott Chasse

as well as work by New York artists Dark Clouds, Celso, ELC Crew, and Deeker
and local artists Hargo, Evoker, Noir Boston, and Alphabet Soup
Opening Reception: Thursday 8/21, 7-11pm, free to public

Sponsored by Proletariat, Artists and Craftsman Supply, and The Upper Crust Pizzeria

OverKill Studio After-Party sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon

"Paint It Now" brings together practicing artists from differing educational, social, and cultural backgrounds to examine the complexity of the nature of painting today. Each selected work is an attempt at visual communication of concept, through the medium, while ignoring, referencing and/or appropriating learned art history and observed contemporary practices.

Fusing individual exhibition and a collaborative two-wall installation, "Paint It Now" explores what it means to emerging painters to create in the contemporary arena. These complexities are exemplified in the range of the artists' individual styles: total abstraction, street, cartoon, realism. The installation walls incorporate all selected artists with an open invitation to paint freely over the course of the six week exhibit.

The individual work and installation examine how contemporary painters negotiate the overwhelming influence of those who have come before them, traverse the influence of those creating around them, and collaborate with other artists towards a common goal. How each artist channels these weighted stimuli into their own visual world and then into a shared visual world creates a juxtaposition of what it means to each artist to paint "now," in the contemporary arena; what it means for each artist to "Paint It Now".

As in, "NOW."

MARKED MEMORY

June 26- August 14, 2008

The Distillery Gallery in South Boston will come alive with vibrant works by four Boston area artists during "Marked Memory" opening on June 26th from 6:30 - 9:30pm. In works ranging from small to gigantic, from oil paint and water media to collage, each artist uniquely portrays a sense of time and memory.

Corey Corcoran works from discarded strangers’ albums, snapshots from his family archive, and historic photographs. His works, full of pattern, color, and collage, create a curious narrative.

Aimee Belanger’s intimate paintings are about absence, location, and the failure of memory. Objects are erased with broad brushstrokes, figures are silhouetted, and desolate landscapes stand still. Aimee works from imagination, struggling to remember and capture the feeling of spaces past.

Justin Augspurg’s large narrative paintings, based on mythology and personal experiences, explore the line between abstraction and representation. To Justin, “the story demands figures, objects and places, but the paint will never submit to the illusion.” He is always reinforcing the stuff of paint—rock and oil, earth and water.

Sarah Meyers also explores a sense of narration and abstraction in her paintings to evoke a sense of memory and emotion. Sarah uses paint to arrive at an expression of her feelings about life’s beauty and complexity, along with its sadness and finite nature. Sarah’s figures and landscapes exist on the surface as marks of paint and collage, both beautiful and ugly, bright and muddy, glittery and dark.

Corey and Aimee are both BFA graduates of the Mass College of Art and are actively painting in The Distillery. Corey’s work has been featured in numerous juried shows and publications and will soon be on view at the Kingston gallery, The Fort Point Artist Community Gallery, and in the experimental arts publication “Apenest.” Aimee recently held an exhibition of her travel works in Brooklyn, and has also participated in numerous juried shows throughout Massachusetts. Justin and Sarah hold MFA’s from the University of New Hampshire and have studios in The Maaco building and Joy Street Studios in Somerville. Justin, a fellowship grant recipient of the Somerville Arts Council, has most recently exhibited at The Roger Lapelle gallery in Philadelphia, The Delaware College of Art, and at the Mass College of Art. Sarah’s painting was a recent recipient of the national “Excellence in Art” award and is part of the Liquitex Corporate Collection. Her paintings were recently selected for the juried “American Summer” show at the Kingston Gallery and the “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” show currently on view at the Washington Street Arts Center.

The Distillery Gallery is located at 516 East Second St., first floor, and is free and open to the public from 9am - 5pm, Monday through Saturday.

REALLUSIONS

April 24 - June 3, 2008

Reallusions is a photographic and mixed-media exhibit presenting a combination of invented realities, sensations, and memories with internal spaces, life forms, and landscapes. Depicted are familiar, yet illusionary worlds operating under elsewhere rules, balanced between the Real and Imaginary realms.

The show fuses together the independent approaches of John Hyde and Lalie Schewadron to a singular purpose. The varied paths of artistic exploration each artist has embarked upon are simultaneously highlighted and combined, forming a unified event.

BLACK & WHITE VS. COLOR

March 6 - April 17, 2008

This "mock face-off" will feature photographs by Walter Crump, Mary Flatley, John Hyde, and Jim Siegel.

Photographs by four Boston-area artists will be on display at The Distillery Gallery in South Boston as part of a mock "face-off" between the two basic forms of traditional photography in the upcoming exhibit, BLACK & WHITE vs. COLOR. Opening on Thursday, March 6, the show will include two Distillery artists, each paired with an invited guest to complete the teams.

Team BLACK & WHITE:
Long-time Distillery tenant, Walter Crump, is primarily known for his pinhole work and uniquely toned & bleached prints which express a painterly quality. Crump's work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally and is included in major collections at the Philadelphia Museum, Smithsonian, Fogg Art Museum, and the National Museum of Fine Art, Hanoi, Vietnam. Crump will include several sepia-toned pieces as an insightful and strategic move on team BLACK & WHITE's behalf.

South Boston resident, John Hyde, is a graduate of the Art Institute of Boston and a fifth-year scholarship recipient. Hyde works almost exclusively as a black and white photographer and often explores the use of unconventional cameras. For this exhibit Hyde focuses on more traditional black and white photography, offering a dozen examples of his efforts, and solidifying a concrete defensive line for his team.

Team COLOR:
Jim Siegel mainly examines colors, textures, and patterns in his seemingly abstract photographs composed of detailed selections of objects which often go unrecognized. His use of multiple photographs arranged to create a single, larger piece is complimentary to an already idiosyncratic approach to photography. Siegel has been a member of the Distillery artist's community for the past six years and has been rumored to be the critic's choice for MVP of this highly anticipated showdown.

Balancing out team COLOR, Boston resident, Mary Flatley, received a degree in photography from Columbia College, Chicago. More traditional in process, Flatley's works wander through colorful juxtapositions of strange and banal situations - moments which highlight the America that exists outside of urban areas. She will contribute half a dozen 18" x 20" pieces and has been alluded to as the "secret weapon" of team COLOR.

FRAMING THE LINE

January 17 - February 28, 2008

Opening Reception 1/18, 6:00 - 9:00pm

Framing the Line is an exhibition of drawings inspired by a specific type of Japanese art:  manga. This term refers to the Japanese comic book, which in turn, is quite often brought to film - becoming anime (Japanese animation).

The show, curated by Cat, features art by Nikolaus Gulacsik and Daniela Wong-Chiulli, two Boston-based artists fascinated by this Japanese art form to the extent of producing their own version of that genre. Framing the Line is by no means a survey of the Japanese pop culture and its visual media, nor does it attempt to break down the history of such a lengthy subject.

The main distinction to be made between the art works on display and manga is that the latter involves images that are continuously in motion. The images drawn by Gulacsik and Wong-Chiulli exist by themselves for themselves.  They are manga-like images taken out of the context of narrative and placed in the context of contemplation.

ART SPOTTING

November 29 - January 10, 2007

Opening Reception 11/29, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Curated by: Robert daVies and Femke Lutgerink

Featured Artists:

Aimee Belanger, Sadie Bliss, H. Boney, Catherine Bourassa-Hébert, Michael Cardinali, Laurie Carman, Brian Carman, Loc Chanler, Scott Chasse, Corey Corcoran, Tasha Marie Cough, Michael Dacey, Nathan Demant, Alex Feinstein, Elizabeth Geissler, Mary Walker Graham, Ivo Gretener, Nikolaus Gulacsik, John Hyde, Vanessa Irzyk, Marketa Klicova, Kathy Kneeland, Maria LaCreta, Jasmine Laietmark, Keith Maddy, Jane D. Marsching, Dan McCole, Denyse Rose Murphy, Chris Nau, M.L. Van Nice, Debra Olin, Mike Olmstead, Cheryl Ann Robinson, Deb Bretton Robinson, Amy Ross, Sand T, Matt Aaron Tempelton, Deb Todd Wheeler, James White

SO DELICATE, SO DETAILED

This four-person exhibit features Laurie Carman, Alexander Demaria, Marielle Sinclair, and Anna Trzaska. Themes of fragility, intricacy and precision are explored throughout these works of wood, paper, wax, thread, and other mixed media.

This is the first of a new series of exhibits featuring guest artists along-side Distillery resident artists.

Opening reception: September 13th, 5:30-8:30pm